Love Actually director Richard Curtis uncomfortable with movie's lack of diversity

Love Actually director Richard Curtis has said he feels "a bit stupid" about parts of his 2003 Christmas rom-com, including its lack of diversity.

Curtis admitted elements of the movie are now "bound to feel out of date".

The British filmmaker added that many people's ongoing love for his film was "really touching", however.

Curtis made the remarks on The Laughter & Secrets of Love Actually: 20 Years Later, a one-hour special broadcast on US TV channel ABC.

He appeared on the programme alongside stars Hugh Grant, Dame Emma Thompson and Bill Nighy, as well as Laura Linney and Thomas Brodie-Sangster.

Asked by anchor Diane Sawyer if there were any elements of the film that "made you wince", Curtis replied: "There are things that you would change, but thank God society is changing.

"My film is bound in some moments to feel out of date," he said. "The lack of diversity makes me feel uncomfortable and a bit stupid.

"There is such extraordinary love that goes on every minute in so many ways [in life generally], all the way around the world, and makes me wish my film was better.

"It makes me wish I'd made a documentary just to kind of observe it."

He later added how films, when done well, can "act as a reminder of how lovely things can be and how there are all sorts of things which we might pass by, which are in fact the best moments in our lives".

The star-studded Love Actually pulls together a string of separate but inter-linked romantic tales into one festive feast, which many viewers continue to devour to this day, while others find it sickly and in parts problematic and sexist.

The box office smash hit received two Golden Globe awards as well as rather mixed reviews from critics.

At the time, Variety's Todd McCarthy called it "a roundly entertaining romantic comedy" and a "doggedly cheery confection", while Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times labelled it as "a belly-flop into the sea of romantic comedy".

In a retrospective review, BBC Culture's Nicholas Barber noted how "there's actually no love in Love Actually", suggesting "Lust Actually" might have been a better title.

During the aforementioned ABC show, some of its stars praised Curtis, with Dame Emma describing the Comic Relief co-creator as a man with a "golden heart".

"He's truly a good person [and] in our business that's something that [is] to be treasured."

Grant added that the Love Actually script is "a bit psychotic", or in other words: "Richard on steroids".

"But the thing is with him, what you have to remember is when he writes about love, he means it," said Grant. "And that is quite rare.

"I did drunkenly watch a bit of Love Actually a few months ago with my wife, and she was the one who said, 'Oh look, it's all about pain, it's all about suffering'."

Nighy, who won a Bafta for best actor in a supporting role for his contribution in the film, said it was "wonderful to be a part of".

"It's amazing the way it's entered the language," he said.

"I have people coming up to me saying it got me through my chemotherapy, or it got me through my divorce, or I watch it whenever I'm alone. And people do it."

Elsewhere on the programme, Nighy's co-star Grant, who portrayed a fictional UK prime minister in Love Actually, said his famous Downing Street dance is "the most excruciating scene ever committed to celluloid".

In the scene he is seen gyrating around the offices of Number 10 Girls Aloud's version of The Pointer Sisters' 1983 track Jump, before being caught by his personal secretary.

Down the years, many people have recreated the dance online, such as former WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker.

"I think I saw it in the script and thought 'I'll hate doing that'," recalled Grant. "No Englishman can dance when they're sober at 8am in the morning," he joked.

"And to this day, you know, there's many people, and I agree with them, and we think it's the most excruciating scene ever committed to celluloid.

"But then some people like it."

Director Curtis said the actor - who he also cast in Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill - had been "grumpy" about performing the routine, but went through with it due to "contractual obligation".